


tag, you’re it!

by rippedjuns



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: 5 Seconds of Fluff, Angst, Creepy Girl, Curses, Death, Demons, Established!Cheolsoo, Established!Gyuboo, Games, Halloween, M/M, Scary (I’m Trying), Violence, i guess??, messed up, seokmin is whipped, trick-or-treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:19:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16479938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rippedjuns/pseuds/rippedjuns
Summary: this wasn’t just a game anymore. things were escalating too quickly for seokmin to keep up, but he knew that regardless of the others’ fates and outcome of this entire nightmare, he had to survive.— or where seokmin should’ve never trusted halloween





	tag, you’re it!

**Author's Note:**

> this was written as a halloween gift for my bro, chi! thank you for the awesome prompt (●´ω｀●)
> 
> like i’ve warned before, there is death and violence 
> 
> this is like the first explicit fic i’ve written on here sjsjdj breaking the trend lads
> 
> now playing - warning by day6

halloween always put seokmin a little on edge.

it was something about how the entire world manages to shift in the space of a few hours, where tales of demons and witches would fly about the town, petrifying the ears of young children and tiring the brains of teenagers who had failed to see the truth in said stories. a whole new atmosphere would settle around the throats of the citizens of the world on halloween, drawing them unsuspectedly into the supposed positive vibes of the holiday. the banners and the costumes and the sweets would sugar coat the historic meaning of the holiday, leading to the fear of the supernatural dissolving into thin air. a false sense of security followed the word ‘halloween’ about like a ghost to its relatives, and as people approached the 21st century, it was starting to become clear that halloween wasn’t taken as seriously as it was years prior.

the spooky aspects had been lost amongst the sweet wrappers.

all the mythical creatures that once would scare the humans on that night were forced into hiding for eternity.

the line between reality and fantasy had been blurred from the new type of celebrations people had decided for halloween.

people didn’t realise that it wouldn’t be long until something got their revenge.

seokmin could sense something going wrong on halloween, seeing as he’s never been one for the holiday. even when he was a young boy, kicking footballs with his stubby legs and singing with his breaking vocal chords, he preferred to stay at home and rewatch the same films over and over again whilst eating some fresh soup made by his parents. obviously the night wasn’t meant for comfort - it was designed to leave you feel agitated to the point where you can’t walk a step forward without being apprehensive about your surroundings - but seokmin couldn’t find himself to slot into that position.

so when he was invited to a halloween party around his best friend’s house, it was crystal clear that comfort was not going to get crossed off on his bucket list for the night.

“alrighty then! who’s next on the controllers?” jisoo bounced at the chance to announce the next round of mario kart, almost jumping off the lap off his boyfriend in excitement (he would’ve fallen off if it wasn’t for seungcheol holding him back).

“i choose you: mingyu!” seungkwan - dressed in an ‘oh my god!’ pig shirt and some black jeans - shouted from the other end of the living room, snatching the remote from jeonghan’s hands and rushing to pick out his character. the boy who on this night could be easily mistaken for a narcissistic youtuber rolled his eyes into the back of his head, crawling over to the couch to take the controller from seungcheol.

“don’t look too excited, gyu-ah!” the eldest pokemon trainer chuckled as he handed over the wii remote, trying to lighten up the situation despite knowing fully that mingyu had an argument with seungkwan before he left because he quote unquote ‘didn’t want to be seen in this fake gucci’.

mingyu would do anything for seungkwan.

seungcheol would probably end up doing anything for jisoo as well.

seokmin would love to be that fairy prince for someone; it’s just whether the damsel was actually in need of saving.

it was obvious that he was starstruck when he first saw jeonghan. the angel was a meteorite striking his entire earth, leaving his mind thinking of only the boy. seokmin wondered whether angels had mystical powers, because jeonghan had left him well and truly hypnotised after their first encounter. those bright, brown, beautiful eyes were a whirlwind, sucking seokmin in unexpectedly, and seokmin would do anything to brush his fingers through the luscious locks of jeonghan’s hair, seeing nothing but heaven as he told the older his feelings.

it’s just a shame that jeonghan was way out of his league.

all six boys heard the doorbell monotonously ring, putting their rambunctious acts to sleep, and leaving them at a silent stand still. the boy dressed as eevee stood up from the eldest’s lap and waddled through sticky sweet wrappers to reach for the empty trick or treat bowl. it was unfortunate for children who ventured to seungcheol and jisoo’s heavily decorated later in the evening, for they tend to be the popular amongst the younger children, whose sweet teeth were craving to sink into the full sized mars bars and the stretchy laffy taffy strings. it hurt the people who inhabited the house to be unable to serve the young children who knocked on their door after the bowl was abandoned, but that came as a consequence to being the best trick-or-treating house on halloween.

cracking open the lock, jisoo peered passed the door to the outside world, spotting a young girl swaying on the concrete step. her hair was suspended in pigtails, and her rosy cheeks and sunny smile contrasted with the pitch black eyes staring back at jisoo. something shifted in the man, and it evoked a sense of apprehension in his stomach. nevertheless, he gifted her a warm smile, his heart aching when he spotted her empty basket.

he hated this, why did he decide to answer the door? he thought it would be so much easier than this.

“i’m really sorry darling, we’ve ran out of sweeties.” he apologised, watching the girl’s expression switch sour, her bottom lip quivering but not from the cold atmosphere. “i promise if you come out earlier next year, i will—“

“i want sweeties!” she interrupted, the typical whiny voice of young children dripping from her lips.

“look, dearie,” jisoo tried to consol, “i really want to give you sweeties, but i have none left!” he pouted, attempting to get the message into the girl’s head, but nevertheless, she refused to accept it.

the struggles of his boyfriend were loud enough to encourage seungcheol out of his seat by the television, floating over to the door to see the veins almost popping out of jisoo’s forehead in frustration. the girl didn’t seem to be crying, she just looked to be getting angry more than anything. seungcheol knelt down and became the superhero jisoo always saw him as, smiling gently at the toddler.

“ princess, the sweeties got tired after such a long night, so they all went to bed!” he explained, jisoo trying not to scream next to him because ‘damn, he would be such a good father to our children’. “if you come back tomorrow, the sweeties can be awake from their dreams for me to give to you!”

“well then, why can’t you wake the sweeties up?” she crossed her arms, and now seungcheol was starting to get agitated at this six year old.

“please go home, the sweets will be here tomorrow. go back to your parents.” jisoo said, slamming the door shut on the child and then soon realising what he had done. he went to reach for the door handle, but seungcheol held him back.

“no, she’s gone, shushu. she’ll back tomorrow if she listened to me.” he reassured, combing his fingers through the hair of the teary-eyed eevee. “she’s gone home.”

then the doorbell rang again.

_“tag, you’re it!”_

in the midst of their mario kart game, seungkwan scratched at his ear whilst skidding along the track. something felt wrong to all of them, but nothing inside them gave them the urge to stand up and check. seokmin felt his stomach lurch towards the hallway, and a tiny nerve in his ear picked up some sort of suspicious noise, but the sound of seungkwan shouting at mingyu, and the sound of the overly played theme tune of rainbow road drowned out the perplexion and left it to sink.

_“make it stop! please!”_

the crunch of crisps against pure white teeth shattered their ear drums, and the slurping of the overpriced soft drinks flooded their ear canals, and the clicking of the remote buttons raced based the other noises to reach the auditory nerves first. seokmin knew something wasn’t right in the house, and he wanted to get up and check. jisoo and seungcheol had been gone for longer than expected. how many trick or treaters arrived at their empty bowl? however, when he placed his hands on the squeaky floorboards to push himself upwards, an odd force tied his being to the ground, restricting him from clearing his doubt.

_“somebody help us!”_

he was getting concerned now. why was nobody noticing the house-owners’ absence? seokmin felt his cardiovascular organs go into meltdown inside his body, but tried to keep himself calm on the exterior. surely it couldn’t be that bad? he needed to find out, he wanted to make sure they were okay. they were his best friends, and two of the people who made sure he saw the outside world on a constant basis. seokmin desperately wanted to see the future, but something was building a wall between him and the other boys.

_“i don’t want to—!”_

a certain pressure was lifted from everyone’s chests, and it seemed that seokmin wasn’t the only one that had fears and concerns for seungcheol and jisoo. quickly, they got up from their spaces. the game was left abandoned with the rest of their happy celebrations. the hope for a surprise from the two men was still bubbling inside of them. a prayer for the fright to be washed away was still in session.

however, when the boys rushed to the hallway, the surprise they were given were ones that they never wanted to receive.

two bodies laid limp on the oak floorboards, dressed in matching halloween costumes. they were slowly drowning in a pool of merlot intoxicants, with scratches littering their skin from their heads to their toes. each cut tunnelled deep into their beings, and they would’ve been barely recognisable if they weren’t the only other people in the house. their hair was matted in the crimson liquid, the colour once vibrantly standing out on top of their heads now hardly identifiable. seokmin tilted his head bewilderedly at certain holes in the case. the males were holding one another’s hand forcibly due to a thick rope knotted and bruising their wrist. it would’ve seemed like a normal (yet still kind of weird, but none of them would’ve questioned it) thing for a couple to have done when alive, but something made it seem more peculiar now that they were dead. yet, the spookiest thing that left seokmin’s blood curdling in his veins were the eyes of the two males.

they were still wide open, bloodshot and fearful.

“i don’t think you want to end up like your friends, do you?” a voice resonated through the hallway, snatching onto the quartet’s attention immediately. a young girl stood innocently at the other end of the room, swinging herself back and forth on her heels. her eyes were set in onyx, and seokmin couldn’t tell who she was looking at. “all you have to do to escape their fate is play my game of tag, seeing as these meanies didn’t want to play along. if i find you, then you lose! if i don’t find you...then that’s something for you to reveal for yourselves.” her pout that had formed at the implicit mention of the deceased seungcheol and jisoo was now slowly morphing into a sly smirk. those faces seemed much scarier from a toddler than from an adult. “you must have a partner with you at all times, or else the game doesn’t work and i instantly win!” instantaneously, seungkwan grasped onto mingyu’s arm, silently shivering in fear of losing another person. that left seokmin with his all-time crush, jeonghan. he had to try and protect the older boy just like his character - captain jack sparrow- would do anything to save the pearl.

**_“you now have a thirty second head start, then i’m coming to get you!”_ **

this wasn’t just a game anymore. things were escalating too quickly for seokmin to keep up, but he knew that regardless of the others’ fates and outcome of this entire nightmare, he had to survive.

☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡

“you know this house better than i do, jeonghan.” the younger whispered to the latter, who was striding forward. seokmin didn’t realise properly how big the house actually was, passing through the maze of doors leading to nowhere. he knew seungcheol was an architect, and that jisoo was a surgeon, but it didn’t really strike his mind that they would have this amount of money, as usually they would migrate to the living room or the kitchen. “where do we go to hide?”

the elder pushed his wings out of the way, striding through the corridors confidently. “we shouldn’t go to any of the bathrooms, seeing as we would only have a shower curtain to hide behind. maybe not a bedroom because we aren’t necessarily the smallest of people.” jeonghan tapped his chin with his index finger, “how about jisoo’s walk-in wardrobe!”

“he has a walk-in wardrobe just for himself?”

“they have like three each. i’m telling you, they’re stinking rich! that’s how they afford full size mars bars, and why i have to get my roommate to had out single haribo sweets.”

seokmin wondered what hid behind each door, now that his mind recalled this information. maybe the rooms were where they stored the halloween decor each year? but then, they wouldn’t have fifty rooms just for halloween, that seemed a bit stupid and a waste of space. neither of the couple were that stupid either.

as they walked through doorways, seokmin could tell that jeonghan was getting annoyed by his costume, and that the outfit was not designed for escaping black-eyed children. the wings kept on slapping against the walls as he slid carefully through door-frames, and then ricocheting back in to collide with his body harshly. it frustrated him so much that after a few minutes, jeonghan suddenly reached behind him and ripped them brutally from his shoulder blades, tossing them into the distance.

seokmin would be lying if he said that jeonghan didn’t look hot doing that.

“we’re almost there, just stay quiet and maybe we can get out of here with our lives.” jeonghan instructed, snapping seokmin out from his daydream.

after opening endless numbers of doors that happened to be ahead of them, seokmin and jeonghan hurriedly rushed into the walk-in wardrobe without much of a chance to marvel at the extent of jisoo’s fashion obsession. the angel pointed to a large cupboard situated in the corner of the room, with mahogany doors and a glossy cover to protect it from the majority of disasters. seokmin hoped it could save them from demonic toddlers.

fortunately, both boys were skinny enough to slide seamlessly into the wardrobe, amongst the long trench coats and the oversized jumpers dangling neatly from their hangers. the only downside (well, it could be an upside in seokmin’s eyes) was that they were so close to each other that they could hear each other’s heartbeats, and jeonghan’s was not matching his daily dozy attitude. the older’s pupils had expanded from dread, and it was a shock to seokmin when he reached over and grabbed onto his hand, drawing circles into the back of his palm.

he was holding his hand.

yoon jeonghan was hold his hand.

he was glad to feel a bit of a dream dwindling in with their nightmare cocktail.

the main door to the walk in wardrobe was slammed open unexpectedly, and both boys held their breath until they heard the panicking mutters of mingyu and seungkwan filling the room immediately after their entrance. they could hear their heavy footsteps echoing against the hollow wooden furniture, and they didn’t know whether the two boys would give their hiding spot away.

“i’m scared, gyu. i don’t want any of us to end up like jisoo-hyung and seungcheol-hyung.” they could hear the youngest say, the excitement from a short while ago drained away like dirty water.

seokmin could hear a sigh, “i’m not too sure what will happen to us, kwan. but i will do anything to make sure you’re protected.”

“but s-seungcheol, he is - was - stronger than any of us. now look at him!”

some rustling interrupted their conversation, the boys trapped inside the wardrobe assuming they struggled through the piles of clothing to hide behind them in an attempt to escape from the girl. “just don’t worry about it too much, it’s probably just a sick prank.” their voices were more hushed now.

jeonghan and seokmin were smart enough to know the difference between reality and a prank. they’ve followed through with their own devious acts before, from filling a bedroom with cups of water whilst the prankee was still asleep to pretending to shave people’s heads with the help of sound effects and wigs. recalling the events occurring so far, and looking at the scene of the crime first discovered by the quartet, there was no way that this was a set up. it was easy to spot a prank, but those aspects that set those tricks apart from the truth were not present right now.

the entrant didn’t bother knocking on the door before entering, the ominous creaking opening the floodgates for adrenaline to deluge seokmin’s veins. small feet took even smaller steps into the room, the squeaking of sneakers against jisoo’s freshly polished floorboards as she drew closer to the centre of the room.

“pretty boys, come out come out wherever you are!” she cheered, but no movement was heard from either party. seokmin felt jeonghan shiver until his touch, to which he squeezed the elder’s hand tighter in order to ease his fear. one shake too large and they might not see the outside world either again. he couldn’t tell whether the shine from the crack in the doors was lighting up jeonghan’s face, or whether it was the teardrops sparkling in the corners of his eyes like stars dimmed by fog clouds. “you don’t want to play with me? don’t be such party poopers!”

they noticed her footsteps accelerate in a specific direction, inching closer to one couple. seokmin could feel himself suffocating from those sound waves wrapping around his throat before entering his ear canals. jeonghan had to restrict himself from sniffling away his tears, and seokmin had to hold himself back from maneuvering his hand to position it on the older’s icy cheek. it pained him to see jeonghan in such distress with nothing much to do to save him.

she didn’t speak again, but a threatening warmth squeezed the pair. it didn’t feel like a blanket stitched for a snowy fall, but more like a torture trap to prevent escape. seokmin couldn’t tell whether he was hot or cold, sad or angry, safe or vulnerable.

he needed to keep jeonghan safe.

jeonghan was the pearl.

seokmin was captain jack sparrow.

a hand touched the cupboard doorknob.

seokmin gulped.

_“...six figures, i was only four. six figures, i was only four. so much money i can’t see the floor. i don’t even open—“_

the heat unravelled itself from seokmin and jeonghan, and weaved its way out of the cupboard, leaving an unsettling cold atmosphere lingering between the two breathing bodies. the squeaks of shoes filled the air once again.

“silly boys, why would you ever trust someone you love?” she cackled, assumedly getting closer to mingyu and seungkwan. “on halloween, it’s a dog eat dog world. becoming dependent on other people will get you nowhere on this earth.” seokmin didn’t linger on the thought of a toddler speaking such vicious words for too long, as he feared more for his friends’ impending death. “you may live together, but you die alone.” her smirk was audibly loud somehow, and jeonghan couldn’t bear to hear anymore from the looks of it.

but they wouldn’t have to.

there was a sharp gasp.

_“tag you’re it!”_

and the world was left on standstill again, with seokmin only being allowed to stare at jeonghan’s face, and feel his skin against the pads of his fingertips. the cupboard was a cage, inhibiting them from spectating the outside events. in fact, they could barely notice any screams resonating from behind the wooden doors. it seemed too suspicious. too foreboding. too portentous.

he used his eyes to ease the agonising worries of jeonghan, who was soaked in tears whilst the short outbursts of pain-laced words surged them neck deep. the younger felt his cells turn to stone, the angel’s hands dropping in temperature immediately as if he shared the same feeling. the same unknown feeling that left them stranded and oblivious to the mess occurring just through the hollow wood. seokmin allowed a series of taciturn hushes drip from out of his lips inattentively to appease the sobbing male in front of him, despite being choked up themselves. they knew that it was mostly likely that their friends were receiving a similar fate to the most recently deceased couple. the only mystery left to solve was how the killer made her moves - and if there was really an escape to this nightmare.

_“get off of us–!”_

not much was said afterwards. the weight was lifted. yet, seokmin and jeonghan didn’t dare to even breathe. she was probably dwindling outside their hiding spot, keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. seokmin was surprised that she couldn’t hear his heart racing for its life, trying to pump oxygen around his body to keep up with the fast paced thoughts in his brain. thoughts about surviving, thoughts about hiding, thoughts about jeonghan, thoughts about dying. each thought was a new string knotting his body together and holding him hostage in a straitjacket manor.

the screeching sneakers made themselves known again, luckily.

“i feel as if that game was too short, boys.” she called now from the hallway, the voice becoming more and more distant as she spoke. “how about one more round, seokmin? jeonghan?”

how did she know their names? there’s nothing that could’ve given her the facts on a silver plate. a shiver crawled up seokmin’s spine.

**_“who’s going to be the last one standing, me or you?”_ **

☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡☆彡

mingyu and seungkwan were dead as well.

their bodies tied up like butchers’ meat, gaping cuts spurting out streams of the thick bodily wine unexpectedly. their eyes still wide open and bloodshot, displaying their final moments of anguish through the socket frames for any spectator to see.

jeonghan didn’t stand to watch over their bodies for too long, something about respect for those who’ve passed - yet he was willing to stay and stare at the lifeless beings of jisoo and seungcheol, so seokmin concluded it as an excuse to discover a new hiding place before the girl came to find them.

never in his life did seokmin think he could be developing anxiety from a toddler.

maybe that was how they found themselves locked in one of the many vacant bathrooms the house had to offer.

a skeptical noise caused them to leap into one of the rooms where they originally said to themselves to avoid, and lock the door behind them; and now, they were huddled close in the bathtub, where jeonghan decided to rest his head against seokmin’s shoulder. if only the older could see the blush blooming on the latter’s cheeks, the only happiness to have shined through from the current events. despite the cold blood slowly occupying the household from four different specimens, jeonghan still managed to delicately hug his side, transferring the warmth of a soothing fire through to his body, minus the choking smoke and the deafening crackles. if only seokmin could guarantee a longer lifetime with jeonghan, then maybe he could be planning a luxurious on-a-budget date night for the pair rather than awaiting death’s call to send him down the highway to hell.

“seokmin,” jeonghan whispered gingerly into the named pirate’s ear, who hummed to show that the older had his undivided attention. “if we don’t get out of here alive, and if we don’t see each other again for the rest of eternity, then i just want to say...i may or may not be in love with you.”

seokmin could feel himself melting into a puddle, ready to sink down the drain to the sewer where he belonged. the yoon jeonghan? in love with a peasant male like himself? what drug had the toddler laced the air with? he didn’t sound as if he regretted it afterwards - in fact, he snuggled back into the crook of seokmin’s neck. two puzzle pieces connecting at long last.

“that’s funny, because i’ve had a crush on you for years now.” he mutely chuckled, and for some reason, his heart felt calmer than it was moments earlier.

with the slow breathing of jeonghan against his exposed neck, the boy’s arms wrapped around his chest in a comforting hug, and knowing that his feelings were finally reciprocated, seokmin felt more at ease than ever before, relishing in the moment for as long as possible before the next sequence of events followed through. he could rest easy knowing that jeonghan was willing to share the romantic love with the younger - even if it may not last for long - for jeonghan’s smile digging into the skin on his neck as the older pressed his head against his shoulder was all he could ask for. jeonghan’s happiness was all he could ask for. whatever made jeonghan happy, seokmin would happily follow through. he could never feel indestructible - seeing the state of the other four boys - but the abstract emotion of love made him feel that little bit more confident.

_knock knock._

or he hoped it did.

“run, run as fast as you can. you can’t catch me, i’m the gingerbread man!” she sang, the tone of her voice seeming too threatening for the innocent nursery rhyme. seokmin used to sing this to his niece before she went to sleep, but now he wonders whether she would’ve gotten nightmares from it like how he could develop demons in his head from such a simple song. jeonghan sat upright, letting go of the younger once the toddler grasped ahold of his attention through the walls. “it’s either you come to me, or i come to you. take your pick.”

silence began to fill the bathtub as the pair figured out their separate game plans. seokmin noticed a window in the corner, but it would be too small to fit their bodies through unfortunately. his phone had coincidentally lost the entirety of its battery, rendering it useless for calling for assistance. there wasn’t a secret door or a hidden lock or even– “seokmin, i’m going to go out there.”

“jeonghan are you going insane?!”

standing up and brushing off the dust from his snowy outfit, the angel looked up with a stern expression. “no i’m not. i want to protect you, and you’ve done enough for me.”

seokmin rolled his eyes, “but you’ve guided me throughout all of this! let me go out there–“

“no!” interrupting his justification, jeonghan cried. tears began to soak into his pores again, as he extended his arm out to support seokmin’s cheek with his hand. “before this, the number of times you would pay for my food bill when i was short of cash, or you would comfort me during my worst of times with a pint of ice cream and a pillow fort, or you would help me study for my marketing masters despite having taken music production as a degree, were astronomical. hell, even earlier you held me back from exposing our hiding spot with your consoling massage and reassuring smile, keeping me sane in a game where reality seems like only a dream. you’ve done so much for me, seokminnie, and to make up for your samaritan acts in my darkest hour, i’m going to save you from yours.”

left speechless, the younger struggled to come up with a coherent response on the spot. jeonghan must be some sort of guardian angel to willingly put himself through the danger. “please think about this logically, hannie.”

“i have, and i’m going. just count to thirty once the door closes, and come to find me. i’ll wait for you.” jeonghan leaned in swiftly once he finished talking, placing his fear-scarred lips against seokmin’s own for a split second. for that split second, seokmin could see nothing but a galaxy of colour amongst the dark aura set up by the halloween night. the angel gifted him a genuine smile as a parting present. seokmin wished it all would’ve lasted longer. “i love you so much.”

he mumbled back an ‘i love you too’ as the door closed behind jeonghan.

_“nice for you to join the party, jeonghan. but i hate to inform you that this tea party is couples’ only!”_

_“let us go then, we won fair and square.”_

_“...too bad. it’s my game, i can do what i want!”_

_“what-?”_

**_“tag, you’re it!”_ **

fourteen seconds left.

he didn’t understand why he could still move, why he could still walk, why he could still breath clearly. after those three words, aren’t the other participants meant to be unaware of the killer’s tactics? if so, why would he have an easy access to the bathroom door?

he was desperate to know how jeonghan was doing, to know whether he was alive and fighting, or whether he fell victim to the trap. he couldn’t bear to imagine the gorgeous angel sinking into the carpet due to oversaturation, his body stripped raw of personality until it was left close to a hunk of rotting meat. why didn’t he fight against him longer? why didn’t he assert himself into the situation? why didn’t he push past to protect the pearl from harm? he was so stupid, but he had faith and trust in jeonghan. he was hopeful for anything but his dead body. anything but blood.

three.

two.

one.

zero.

he swung the door open. it almost came off of its hinges.

in front of his eyes was a pair of black holes, settling behind the socket openings on the person’s face, ready to vacuum up any lost causes. any sign of colour on his face had drained away quicker than water trickling into the plughole. the outfit was in tact, and was fairly fitting to the toddler that seokmin assumed would be standing in his place. pristine white, usually to resemble innocence and purity. the smile was confusing. at first glance, seokmin saw it as sincere, the last humane part of the person remaining in their body before insanity overthrew their brain; but the corners of his lips curled to a sneer close to that of a doll. too perfect, too absolute, too ideal. this wasn’t anything similar to the smile he was bestowed thirty seconds ago from the boy who he had fallen in love with all those years ago. no, this wasn’t a jeonghan smile. he had strayed far from that territory.

this wasn’t jeonghan.

“what is it like to be in love so badly that you would trust someone that you’ve been dating for thirty seconds?” she questioned, “i’m glad i will never have to rely on someone like that...”

the fake jeonghan started to take steps closer to seokmin, holding onto the younger too tightly before he could back up into the wall. nothing about this felt safe. he wanted the old jeonghan back, he wanted everyone to be alive again, he wanted to rewind to when they were carelessly playing mario kart before the doorbell rang. this is why he hated going outside on halloween.

“...because you never know when they’re going to stab you in the back.”

something slotted itself neatly in the middle of his shoulder blades, causing him to hack up blood instantaneously over jeonghan’s white shirt. each splutter left a larger splatter, and he could feel scorching tears scolding his scalp as he coughed up more crimson liquor and cried alongside the possessed male. black doticured patterns began to paint his vision, every part of his body losing touch with one another. if it wasn’t for the male’s hold on him, he would’ve fallen to the floor, but instead, he watched the world fade to black in the arms of his influenced murderer. he could hear a single cry out of his name from his beloved’s vocal chords, but it was too late. they were already losing touch with the earth. they were already going.

going.

going.

gone.

_“tag, you’re it.”_

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween!
> 
> feedback is always appreciated!
> 
> ☆thank you for reading!☆


End file.
